Senior Level Designer & Developer
Gonzalo Castiella
Hello there! I’m Gonzalo Castiella, a level designer with 6 years of experience in the industry and 2 released projects. I am a passionate game developer and have a very strong work ethic, with my main pillars being honesty, trust and transparency with my team. I am teamwork player, none of the work I do is just mine. I spearhead the production of the levels I am part of, but I consult, advise, and collaborate during every step in development with those by my side to create the best possible result experience. I also enjoy lending a hand and sharing knowledge to anyone, specially to any new member to unlock their full capacity as soon as possible.
I am also a gamer who enjoys games both new and old, pretty and ugly, mainstream and niche, and across many genres. I keep an eye on what other teams are currently cooking and dive occasionally into my backlog of games in search of gem.
Most of my career has taken place during the recent crisis of the games industry, and unfortunately it cannot be displayed; but nonetheless, I will describe to the best of my capacity what I have been doing during these latest years.
TMNT The Last Ronin (cancelled)
Black Forest Games
TMNT: The Last Ronin was an original game heavily inspired by comic book series of the same name. The game was a 3rd person action game with a strong focus on combat and story, in which the player controlled the Ronin in his journey of revenge against the Foot clan leader Hiroto through a futuristic version of Manhattan.
During the time of development, I was in charge of multiple levels which contained key events of the story of the comic and expanded on them, and I also assisted in the general polish of many more levels made by other designers during the early stages of their development. I also help in the conceptualization and proof of concept of multiple game mechanics oriented to specific challenges and simple puzzle design.
Tasks I was involved in were:
- Concept and blockout of multiple 30-minute-long levels, as well as enemy encounter design and narrative of those level.
- Prototype and proof of concept of several game mechanics focused on secondary gameplay.
- Assistance with level design, scripting and overall polish of levels created by other teammates while respecting their defined vision, and occasionally inheriting these levels.
- Coordination with a small strike teams consisting of members of each department; design, narrative, art and code; to cater for concerns of each department during the development of a level.
- Player testing-oriented iterations to improve the overall experience.
Destroy All Humans 2 Reprobed
Black Forest Games
Destroy All Humans 2 Reprobed is the remake of the PS2 cult classic Destroy all Humans 2, developed from the ground up and each of its worlds and missions greatly updated, with an emphasis of making the experience as memorable and quirky fun as possible.
During my time in the project,
The tasks that I was in charge of were:
- Work on the crowdlife and crowdflow and their maintenance based on quest dependencies.
- Design and scripting of side content activities, such as enemy placement and enemy territory definition, collectable placement, platforming challenges, and game achievement challenges.
- Upgrading the world layout of Solaris regarding the original PS2 version.
- Level setup for multiplayer PK Tennis mode.
- QA of all quests and DLC missions.
Tallest Tree
Wosylus Studios
Tallest Tree is a 2D vertical platformer mobile game where the player has to bounce around while avoiding obstacles in order to collect a pinecone at the end of every level. Furthermore, by collecting enough pinecones, the player is able to contribute to the real world by having a tree planted for him.
During the time in this project, I was main the level designer, in charge of creating levels and exploring ways to create new situations with the limited resources we had access to, as well as catering for a good flow throughout the course of the game.
The tasks I was in charge of were:
- Creating levels with a unique gameplay theme using the internal editor, from scratch to its polished final state.
- Balance the flow of the game with regarding difficulty and reward economy.
- Adapt levels to player feedback and large user focused tests.
- Classify and organize all levels made by the team in a database.
- Creating smaller level modules for an infinite mode.
- Balance the difficulty of the infinite mode.
- Social media marketing.
- Spanish localization.
Color Spectrum
University Project
Color Spectrum is a cyberpunk top-down shooter where the player controls a hologram with the power of changing its colour for attacking and defending herself from her enemies. The main gimmick of this game is that by changing the colour, the player will avoid colliding with anything of the same colour, like any enemy bullets and walls. This means that the player will need to constantly adapt to the enemies that come after him.
Tasks
- Design
- Gameplay Programmer: customization system, store, enemy A.I., unlockables, game optimization.
- Tools Programmer: player customization creator, player progression, scene management.
Would you like to reach out to me?
My Resume
Contact
Offenburg, Germany
+34 648 085 770
gonzalo.castiella@gmail.com